


Flowers or a Tarantula

by lurKINGaroundd



Series: flowers or a tarantula [1]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Identity Reveal, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 15:39:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16140311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lurKINGaroundd/pseuds/lurKINGaroundd
Summary: MJ didn't expect to spend her day tied to a chair talking to her kidnapper, but there she is.“Nah, man. This ain’t it. I’m not his girlfriend.” Michelle Jones says, moving slightly, doing her best to be a little comfortable while tied to a chair.“… But, he likes you.” The man, the one that tied her to the chair, said.“Ha, no way.” She tried to be calm, tried.





	Flowers or a Tarantula

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy!!! I hope you like it. There's a little bit of violence but it's ok. The villain is an unnamed oc.
> 
> Please, leave a comment!!!! It means the whole world to me.

“Nah, man. This ain’t it. I’m not his girlfriend.” Michelle Jones says, moving slightly, doing her best to be a little comfortable while tied to a chair.

“… But, he likes you.” The man, the one that tied her to a chair, said.

“Ha, no way.” She tried to be calm, tried.

“You’re the only girl around him, there is got to be something.” 

“And you chose to kidnap me only because I’m a girl? That’s sexist, dude.” So she was playing the ‘superhero’s girlfriend being in danger’ role, without even being his girlfriend, it was like the world was mocking her, really.

“I’m a bad guy, I don’t care.” Her kidnapper answered. It made sense.

“Listen, I’m just saying, if you wanted to get someone close to him, you should have gone for Ned, not me. You blew it.” Michelle wasn’t trying to throw Ned under the bus, to get him kidnapped too, but, well, it wasn’t fair that she was the one tied to a chair. She didn’t even officially knows about the Spider-Man secret, because of course, she knows, but Peter didn’t tell her yet.

“Huh, I thought about it, but that kid is always around people. His aunt apartment has some kind of Stark security program. I wanted to do this the quiet way, and you’re the one who likes to walk the streets alone at night.”

Michelle rolled her eyes, of course her loner habit got her screwed. “Man, that’s victim blaming, not cool.”

“Again, I’m bad guy. I don’t care.”

“Well, too bad for you, because he isn’t coming. He’s a flake, but I also like to ghost people every now and then, he’s not going to think it’s strange if I just disappear.” Michelle knew this guy was something, since he knew a fuck ton of things about Peter, he had to be smart to gather that much data about Parker without him noticing, spidey senses and all. 

“He’s coming. And you wanna know how I’m sure of it? That’s because I sent to him a very pretty photo of you, tied to this chair, passed out, your head bleeding.”

There was really blood running down her forehead, because of the hit that made her pass out in the first place, and then brought to his weird, dirty and abandoned warehouse. She had almost forgotten about the injury, but know that she remembered, she felt a headache. “Still, I don’t think your plan is going to work. He’s going to come here, kick your ass, say a cheeky line, and that’s it.” Michelle noticed that the villain had some high tech weapons, but didn’t look strong enough to take down Peter, and Peter was strong as fuck, and had dealt with worse, so. 

“Well, that would be the case, if he was calm, if he was dealing with something unrelated to his personal life. If I wasn’t threatening to behead his girlfriend if he calls anyone, and by anyone I mean Tony Stark and his goons. And while acting recklessly because of you, that’s when I’ll get him, and deliver his head to the almighty Tony Stark.”

So, in the big picture, he was trying to get to Tony Stark by using Peter. She guessed it might be one of the million crazy scientists Tony had pissed off in his life. This guy talked a lot of about beheading people, and that twisted her stomach. Michelle really didn’t want to die that way. “I already told you, I’m not his girl. He doesn’t even like me!” In the beginning, a part of her didn’t even think Peter was coming to save her, but now that she's aware that he knows the situation she’s in, relief was felt. He’s a good guy, a hero, of course he’s coming to save her, but she really doubts he’s going to lose his mind, putting his life at risk for her.

The man was standing, adjusting his weapons that were on a table, but then as he seemed to be over with this chore, he just sat on a chair. He sighed. “Well, maybe if you stopped calling him names, he’d like you.” He had done a lot of spying, that's for sure.

“But then he would notice that I like him!”

“Isn’t that the point?”

“No!” She replied. “Because he doesn’t like me back, and that would only turn things awkward between us. Man, you don’t know anything.”

“You’re the one who doesn’t know anything. I still think he likes you, that’s why he’s going to mess up while trying to save you, and I’ll kill him.”

She scoffed. “You don’t know him when he has a crush. He can’t even look in the eyes of the girl. And I know for a fact, that he talks to me without a problem. Besides, if you kidnap someone dear to the hero, isn’t it supposed to make him stronger or something? Not weak. Haven’t you watched any movies?”

Now it was his time to scoff. “This isn’t a movie, it’s real life. He’s not going to be strong the moment I’m going to shoot at you, and he’s going to recklessly jump in front of you and take the shot. After that, it’s going to be easy.”

Michelle refused to believe that Peter would take a bullet, exclusively for her. Maybe he would, only because it’s him, and he does shit like that, for everyone. The way the man in front of her talked, it seemed like he had been studying Peter, his ways, to be so sure of the hero’s moves, of Peter’s self destructive behavior. But no, she was sure Peter would show up, and be his cocky self as a superhero (she heard the rumors about the hero’s humor), and they would both go home safely. For the first time in life she was trying to be optimistic, she guessed it was something necessary to keep her sane while being held captive. “You know, you’re such a cliché villain, telling me your plans.” She was glad that even though her kidnapper had a thing about beheading people, he wasn’t a torturer.

“And you are such a try hard. Faking being calm and unaffected while I can see your hands and legs shaking.”

He had a point. Michelle wasn’t calm, she was scared. Talking to him, trying to distract herself of her doom. So she kept talking. “Ah… I should have told him. How I feel.”

“Yeah, you should’ve. Now you lost your chance.”

“Nah, I think I still have a chance.”

The man smiled. “Well, if you want to believe that… Go ahead.”

“Maybe I’ll send him flowers with a card, that would be cute. Or maybe a 10 page letter, explaining everything that he did that made my heart beat faster. No! A gift! That would be cool. I should give him a Tarantula. Because he’s Spider-Man. Got it?” She laughed. “He could name it Peter Jr. That would be funny.”

“The flowers with a card idea sounds better.” He commented.

Silence. The man checked his watch. Michelle’s nervousness was causing her a stomachache. “Hey… Are you going to kill me?”

“I don’t know. You’re not my target. It depends if Spider-Man will be able to protect you till the end. You have the possibility of walking out of here, but with the memory of being the reason your loved one is dead.”

Michelle came to the conclusion that this guy was delusional, because no one can be so sure of what the future holds. He seemed smart, but delusional, heavily weaponized, but not strong. She hoped she was right, that they had a chance against him. Michelle didn’t want to survive if that meant that she would have to live with the image of Peter being brutally murdered right in front of her, because of her. “If you get to him… Please, don’t hurt him, don’t make him suffer.”

The man seemed to observe her for a few seconds, then answered. “I can’t promise you that, but I don’t have intentions of torturing him, if that’s what you mean.”

Michelle tried to be satisfied with this answer. “If you’re after Stark, why Peter? There’s Pepper.” Again, she didn’t want to throw the woman under the bus, but it didn’t seem fair to Peter that he was the one being used against Tony. 

“Pepper is a hard target, obviously. High school kids are easier to deal with, even if one of them is a super human. And I know how much that kid means to Stark. That’s enough for me, if I can cause real pain and guilt to Stark, that’s enough for me, that’s all I want.”

The man was patiently talking to her, refraining himself from unnecessarily hurting her, but he was crazy. Definitely crazy and evil. He wanted to kill a teenager for the sake of hurting his enemy. Out of his mind. Still, Michelle was happy for Peter, that the boy managed to get a place in Tony’s heart, since she knows how much Peter admires the old man. “I still think your plan is whack.” Yes, she was trying to be cool, but she believed Peter could get them both safe out of there. The man looked liked he hadn’t the resources to put in action a better plan, even though she would give him credit for successfully getting lots of info on Spider-Man. His plan consisted on Peter losing control, she believed he wouldn’t. He would totally show up there being the usual little shit that he is.

In the end, Michelle was right, the plan was whack, but the man was right about one thing; Peter lost control, just not in the way he imagined.

In a second she hears some noise, a bang. In another second she hears shots, those shots not coming from regular weapons. It was a mess, she looked for him, but she only saw a glimpse of the red and blue suit, she felt a bullet getting so close to her, and then a web was stuck to her chair’s feet and it pulled, making it fall down hard on the ground, breaking its pieces, freeing Michelle as the ropes were loosened from the broken chair. 

So the plan ‘shoot at MJ making Peter jump in front of her and dying’ failed. She knew that the man was a crazy obsessed delusional guy. Maybe it failed because he didn’t think the plan through, maybe he didn’t think Peter could move like that, so fast, so driven, instead of weak and scared. Even she didn’t think he could move like that, she never saw it. There was something different, his demeanor was off. The eyes of his mask were red.

After a few attempts, with her legs still trembling a bit, Michelle managed to get up. She spotted them. The man was still shooting with his high tech weapon, Peter dodging the shots. MJ was confused to why Peter hadn’t webbed him up on the wall already, instead he was just approaching the guy. Then, in the blink of an eye, when the criminal noticed his weapon in hand ran out of bullets, (or energy, she really didn’t know what the heck this thing was made of) Peter webbed it away from him, the object thrown across the place. 

Michelle thought it was finally over, that he would say something funny, walk to her and ask if she was okay. But it wasn’t over. Peter walked to man, and grabbed him by the throat, throwing him against a wall. The wall broke to pieces, falling together with the man. Peter went to him, and once again grabbed the man by the throat, holding him in the air as he slowly pressed strength on his neck.

The man was going to die. It took a few seconds for Michelle to realize what Peter was doing. “He’s going to kill him. He’s killing him.” She gathered all the strength she had to run, and when she got close to them, to scream. “Peter!”

He could listen, but didn’t react, still choking the man. “Peter! No!” She yelled, louder. “Stop! Let go of him! You can’t! Listen to me! Stop!” At that moment, she didn’t even notice that beyond the criminal’s life, she was also trying to save Peter’s life.

He turned his head to her, finally looking at her since he got there. 

“Stop.” She said once again, her voice cracked, tears falling against her will. What a horrible day.

Her tears seemed to enlighten Peter’s head, and then she finally heard his voice. “Karen, deactivate instant kill mode.” Peter released the man, and he was finally on the ground, badly injured, but still alive.

Oh, well, that’s fucked up. Michelle thought. The villain was so right and at the same time so wrong. 

Peter moved one step closer to her, and instinctively, she moved one step back. 

Fuck, so even though her mind knew it was just Peter, her body didn’t respond. She was scared. She knew it was not of him, but her instinct was all messed up.

Peter took off his mask. She saw all kinds of hurt being expressed on his face. “Hey…” He softly said. “Are you fine? Can you hold my hand, so we can get out of here?” He offered his hand to her.

Michelle took it. “I’m good. Let’s get out.” His face, even though she saw how hurt he was, calmed her down. 

They got out of the warehouse, Peter wore his mask back on, and they went swinging, using the big trees that were around until they arrived in the city. 

On the way, she was thinking about how it was an awful way for him to reveal his identity in a situation like this. Michelle planned a little speech to when he decided to tell her. A little speech that said that she could take care of herself, that he couldn’t make decisions for her, and they could still be close if they wanted to. They could be friends. He could trust her. She could handle it. But then, she found herself giving Peter a traumatic experience. She wasn’t even supposed to know his secret, she wasn’t even his girlfriend, for God’s sake. 

Then she thought about his reaction, the way he stormed into the place. Hell, she even felt bad for the kidnapper. She didn’t expect him to go that far. Why would he do it for her? Was she really that important to him? Or maybe was he just going mad? Eventually, she asked for them to stop on a roof, the feeling of the wind, and the adrenaline of swinging was doing no good to her at the moment, she needed a minute.

Once they landed, Peter asked, “Are you okay? Hurt? In pain? We need to go to the hospital and-”

“Hey, hey. Calm down. It’s just my head, okay? I’m fine.”

He sat down with her. 

“Can you… can you take your mask off again?” She asked. It felt like she needed to see his face to keep her sanity.

He looked around, it felt safe enough, he took it off.

“That’s better.” She said.

Peter sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to find out like this. I’m sorry you got hurt because of me.” 

“I already knew. About Spider-Man, I mean.” 

He smiled faintly. “I had a feeling that you knew. You know everything.”

“Not everything. I didn’t know I would get kidnapped. And… I… I didn’t know you would react that way.” 

“I tried to hide it from you, but in the end you still got hurt. I’m a fool.”

Silence. 

“What were you going to do with him?” She finally asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Peter…”

He closed his eyes. “I… I never used it before. The instant kill mode. I didn’t know what to expect, but… The moment I knew you were in danger, when I saw that photo… I didn’t think twice. The thought of losing you, of this guy hurting you, I just… I lost control. I thought I could handle it, you know? That I would stop. It messed with my mind, it took over me. And then I saw you, you were crying, and I just knew it was because of me.” Tears fell from his eyes. “I’m sorry, MJ. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Her hands cupped his face, and she was on her knees between his legs, trying to reach him. “Look at me, listen to me. It’s not your fault I got kidnapped and hurt. The guy that did it to me is the one at fault. The same way it’s not my fault that you had to go through this suffering because a friend of yours was in danger. It’s his fault. You understand? I know it’s hard, but I need you to understand it.”

He nodded. “I got it… I’m sorry I scared you earlier with the…”

She pressed her forehead against his. “You’re forgiven. If I was in your place… I wouldn’t know what I would do if it was you in danger.” 

Their eyes met. “MJ, you…”

“I like you, Peter. I really really like you. I have for a long time. While I was stuck in that place, the only thing that I could think was how much I regretted that I didn’t tell you that. Even if you don’t feel the same, I need you to know that-”

He hugged her. Peter held on MJ for dear life. “I like you too. So so so much. I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

Michelle appreciated the hug, she didn’t know how much she needed it. But still, “What? You… You like me? For real?”

Then Peter looked at her like she had two heads. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Ha, wow.” She giggled. Michelle didn’t even know she was capable of giggling. “You like me.” She kissed him like her life depended on it. Peter was caught by surprise, but soon responded the kiss with the same enthusiasm.

In the end, they ended up heading to the Avengers compound, because Peter was still worried about her even though she said she was okay. Also, Michelle wanted to yell at Tony Stark for putting such a dangerous mode in Peter’s suit, it messed with his mind. And maybe she would need help with some damage control to avoid giving her parents a heart attack about her disappearance. 

Days later, she visited the bad guy in jail. “So, hey, man. Do you still think giving Peter a Tarantula is a bad idea?”

“Yes, I still do. Just give him some flowers instead.” 

“Maybe I’ll just give him both the flowers and the spider. What do you think?”

“I think you’re crazy.”

“Not more than you, though. Well, that’s it, I guess. Goodbye, then.” She got up from the chair.

“Wait.”

She waited. “What?”

“Thanks... For saving my life.” 

The flash of a memory of Peter almost choking the man to death came to her mind. It was gone after a second.

Michelle forced a smile. “You’re welcome. Next time don’t threaten to behead teenagers. Ah. Also. You were right about one thing. He really likes me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you sooooo much for reading my piece of garbage.
> 
> And that was my little bit dark take on the suit's kill mode, lol. 
> 
> Comment, please!!! I'd make me so happy.


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